Recently, the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”), Lafe E. Solomon (“Solomon”), provided guidance on an emerging issue in labor and privacy law: when an employer may discipline an employee for the employee’s social media activities, such as Facebook comments, Twitter posts, or comments on Internet message boards.

Most people know about premarital agreements from their unfair portrayal in movies and in the media. However, the reality is that the premarital agreement is an important tool for life planning and estate planning. More importantly, they can be drafted to treat each spouse fairly. Premarital agreements are best known for their application in the event of divorce. And, while it is true ...

Bingham Greenebaum Doll is proud to sponsor the community conversations for Nobody Don’t Like Yogi and I Love to Eat now playing at the IRT. Community conversations are a unique opportunity for the audience to engage in a post-show discussion about the play. These conversations are often led by members of the Indianapolis community, including Bingham Greenebaum Doll partner Jim Reed.

The Internal Revenue Service announced last week a new program that will enable certain employers to voluntarily resolve worker classification issues rather than wait for an IRS audit. The Voluntary Classification Settlement Program (VCSP) allows employers to voluntarily reclassify their workers from independent contractors to employees and make only a modest payment to cover ...

A new process for appeals of planning and zoning decisions in Indiana may impact your business. In July, several changes to Indiana’s planning and zoning law enacted by the Indiana General Assembly went into effect. The most significant of these was a change in the way planning and zoning decisions are appealed. The new law moves fromcertiorari, or court of appeals review, to a standard judicial review process.

I will be presenting at an upcoming CLE, “Money Laundering: Good practice guidance for lawyers to detect and combat money laundering,” on Nov. 30, 2011. This CLE will look at the ways that money laundering can impact your practice. Any lawyer who handles transactional practice matters, client money through a firm trust account or who creates business entities or trusts could ...

After several years of debate and anticipation, the most substantial change to hit U.S. patent law in decades has come to fruition. On Friday, Sept. 16, President Obama signed the America Invents Act, a piece of legislation that has garnered much attention in the intellectual property community. Businesses and individuals filing for patents will soon need to adapt to several ...

The Commission on State Tax and Financing Policy discussed two important topics at their meeting last week. They covered the impact commuters have on local option income tax (LOIT) revenue and issues relating to how LOIT is distributed among governmental units.

A collective sigh of relief was heard Monday from the financial services sector when the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it was withdrawing its proposed new definition of a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Security Income Act (ERISA). On Oct. 22, 2010, DOL proposed the new definition of “fiduciary” which met with significant and vocal opposition. DOL countered ...

On September 8, 2011, the Fourth Circuit issued opinions in two separate cases challenging as unconstitutional the provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), requiring all individuals to purchase a minimum amount of health insurance by 2014.

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury (the Departments) published a proposed rule under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requiring group health plans covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to provide a Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) and a uniform glossary (glossary) to eligible participants.

Under a new state law that became effective July 1, employers may be required to use an online software program, E-Verify, to screen employees in order to qualify for government contracts or grants. Under this law, SEA 590, failing to maintain a legal workforce could now come at a cost to many Hoosier businesses.

In the last week of August 2011, the Indiana Court of Appeals handed down a decision in Kitchen v. Kitchen that will undoubtedly affect third parties seeking visitation over someone else’s child in Indiana. The Kitchen Court determined that a trial court did not have the authority to award third party visitation to persons other than a grandparent, parent or step-parent. The Court ...

Energize-ECI, East Central Indiana’s partnership for regional economic development, recently obtained approval from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to become an EB-5 Visa Regional Center, a geographic zone that allows foreign investors to obtain green cards in exchange for capital investment that creates jobs for Indiana workers. The approval represents the culmination of a rigorous, 17-month application process whereby Energize-ECI, with assistance from Bingham Greenebaum Doll and others, proved to USCIS that the region could offer multiple EB-5 compliant investment opportunities in new or qualifying existing commercial enterprises in target industries. The new Energize-ECI Regional Center hopes to bring millions of dollars in foreign investment and thousands of new jobs to East Central Indiana over the next five years.